SpaceX Dragon to the ISS

You missed a tiny detail that I personally found very amusing: at the final stages of the descent and while waiting for recovery crews to reach Dragon, you could see Elon at mission control, picking up his smartphone and I immediately "knew "that he was not writing someone a text but that he would be updating his twitter feed. So I kept an eye on the other tab with Elon's twitter page to see what he was writing as soon as the new tweet appeared... I don't know, but I thought that to be a very "strange" situation

If I had a twitter account I would have immediately replied with some nonsense like "hey, just saw you typing that live on nasa tv!"

Well, admittedly, it is a Jubilee, but I see flags everywhere and lots of people celebrating our Queens 60 years on the throne.

That is patriotism, and I certainly regard myself as a 'patriot' and monarchist.

I do find your posts somewhat racist.

More naive and overly simplistic than intentionally racist in my book.

Personally, I'm proud of some things my country achieved, and ashamed of others. I think generally speaking there's way too much absolutism in the world, and too many people that are sure of something. In my opinion, it's all shades of grey, and there's always more than one way of looking at things.

Racism means judging someone based on their race - not not (double negative intended) judging someone at all. If you believe that there is no objective right and wrong, then you should have no problem with Hitler. And if you do believe that Hitler was evil, you should be able to say why, without the moral laziness of accusing anyone who believes in objective morality of "generalizing", or thinking in "black and white" - or being a racist. I think the real reason you accuse me of "racism" is that believing in something requires you to risk life and limb for that belief - and you are a coward.

And if you protest, you may challenge me to a duel - your choice, squirt guns, or water balloons. I warn you, I am a deadly shot.

SpaceX is nowhere near to accomplishing its goal. They don't have reusability, and that is the real transformative um, uh - transformation.

@ SuperShuki: how about giving your ego a little bit less room here in the forum and stop insulting others (hint "coward")? Seriously, in most other forums I frequently use, you would have been (temporarily) banned for some of your more "aggressive" posts. Simply for "trolling" or starting a "flame war".


Anyway...


I can only agree with both of you. This is the kind of attitude I respect the most!

Actually, I have been temporarily banned before. I try to avoid it, but people keep on demanding that I accept that morality is relative, and don't accept the possibility that they could be wrong. They don't say, "SuperShuki, you may be right, I don't know for sure" - they say that I am wrong! And it's not like I bring up the subject, either - I didn't complain that someone put their flag next to their spaceship! If you bring me proof that I'm wrong, of course I'll accept it - but don't condemn me for trying to change your point of view, after you've condemned mine!

If you want to express your values on this board, why shouldn't I express mine?

Besides, he called me a racist.

Not I didnt, I said I found your posts somewhat racist - that doesn't mean you are, it may just mean, as Lourens aid, that you are simply naive, which would be my guess. TBH, I even find you sig line quite offensive and that fact you find it necessary to proclaim it on every post seem to reinforce that view.

Of course, you find it offensive - because it proclaims a value system in which I am right and you are wrong - a value system which every other person in this board rejects. That's respect - to say to someone's face that they are wrong, not to pretend that it's their posts that are wrong, or something that they have no control over. I have control over my own choices, as do you - we have free will. If you think something I do is wrong, explain why - I can take it. I may not agree, but at least you will have my respect. But saying that both of us are correct, and I'm just too naive to understand? You can never learn anything by assuming that - you can only learn something by assuming that there is a correct reality, and an incorrect reality - and we must find it ourselves.

By the way, I have never said that any person on this board is evil, or bad, in any way. You all seem to be genuinely good, and decent, people. You are just wrong - is that such a bad thing?

How about getting back on topic?

Does anyone know when the next dragon mission to ISS is due?

I looked at the launch manifest on Spacex.com - http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php. The next flight is another ISS resupply, and then comes the first flight of Falcon Heavy!

Tentatively scheduled for September 24th

And they have another F9 at the Cape already, and they had a couple of Dragons in various stages of production last autumn. Elon said that they didn't really need to adjust much if anything after the test flight, so it'll probably be down to range availability again...

Yes, apparently that Sept 24 date was originally August 9th. There seems no physical reason why that Aug 9 date couldn't be met after all (still giving 2 months for report writing and formalities), unless NASA can't get the cargo together in time, or they just don't need it yet.

I vaguely recall Elon Musk said in the post splash-down press conference 'early third quarter'...